Colin, if the acoustical conditions are significantly different upstairs, the sound with the M22s will also be significantly different, but it'll have nothing to do with NAD vs Pioneer amplification, both of which are uncolored. As it stands now it's the M22s alone which strike you as "extremely bright". My experience with them for the past eight years shows nothing of the sort except on poorly-recorded material which exhibits that characteristic on an accurate speaker. However, if this continues to be your experience, then the program material which you prefer is best played on some other speaker.

Well just so's ya know, no hard feelings bro. This hobby is nothing if not subjective. No two ears are alike, nor like exactly the same thing. If the Energy's make you tap your feet and put a smile on your face then you should absolutely keep them and forget anything else anyone tells you. Go with what blows YOUR hair back, not what blew someone else's hair back. I'm glad you enjoy this forum and hope you decide to hang around from time to time even if you don't purchase any Axiom products.

There was a great thread about "Big dumb warm speakers" on Canuck Audio Mart forum with all these people complaining they miss their old cheap and warm sounding speakers from the 70s and 80s. I'd like to think that still exists with the added accuracy provided by modern speaker design. Still looking for it though!

Which is why this hobby is so subjective. I would say before I stumbled into Axioms I was definately a 'dumb, warm' speaker kind of guy. I loved my music with a really fat boost in the bass and midbass range on the scale. I can honestly say if I'd discovered Axiom 5 to 10 years earlier than I did, I probably would have also sent them back for being too 'bright'. But I guess I've mellowed out to the point that when I first heard them (at SRoodes place), the absolutely stunning detail and revealing nature of the speakers appealled to me now.

And although I haven't revisited anything from my past days of listening, I can pretty comfortably predict that if I were to throw on some tunes on one of the 'warmer' set-ups I used to dig so much, they would probably sound a bit muddy to me now. Now that my ears are used to this flat response curve, I would say a colored signal would sound very off to me now. But, I do still remember when that was what I desired. So I can't critisize anyone who would rather listen to their music through a colored speaker. If that's what they like, then more power to them.

Monitor Audio is a very difficult brand if you live in Ottawa. There isn't a single Monitor Audio retailer nearby. The closest is three hours away. I've heard some Paradigms and haven't been impressed. Many people say the M80 is very similar sounding to the studio 100.